In response to a question at a Google I/O talk on Thursday, luminaries from Google Research took a stab at predicting life 10 years from now. Here's what they had to say.

The internet of things may be largely about connecting everyday objects, but who says design shouldn't be a major focus? Not Berg and Benetton, who are partnering up on an Italian R&D facility called Sandbox.

While not exactly part of Siri, it is her voice that speaks to you. Spoken notifications come in handy for hands-free situations where you can't pick up your phone, like driving, riding a bicycle or working out at the gym.

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Book publishers discussed digital-first and digital-only initiatives at the Making Information Pay conference this week.

With a team of reporters, GigaOM was all over Google I/O. Now that the news has settled, listen in on this week's podcast to hear what it all means for the future of Google, Chrome, Android and you.

Startup Re:char hopes to deliver a low cost Android gadget plug-in that can test the moisture content and fertility of soil. Kenyan farmers get ready to meet the latest in data analytics and cloud services.

Yahoo wants to buy Tumblr. We hear Facebook might spoil the party. But the question is: is Tumblr the fountain of youth that Yahoo badly needs or will this be case of a pathetic old-middle aged guy hanging with youngsters trying to be hip.

To make sure the response time for their increasingly interactive sites stays low, Chrome developers might want to look at ways to make use of the graphic processors embedded in consumer devices.

Google's support for the Bluetooth Smart Ready platform in Android is one step forward for the radio technology's dominance in the internet of things. But the Bluetooth SIG has a lot more up its sleeve.

Tableau's initial public offering is on Friday, and expectations are high. The company has inspired much of the next-generation analytics space, and how it fares could be telling about just how powerful the data movement is.

Former Groupon CEO Andrew Mason and App.net's Dalton Caldwell are joining Y Combinator as new part-time partners, in addition to each running their new companies.

ViaSat-1 went up about 18 months ago, but the satellite broadband company is already planning its next-generation bird, ViaSat-2. The high-Earth orbiter will far exceed Via-Sat-1's already impressive 140 Gbps of total capacity.

Google and the Catlin Seaview Survey are working as fast as they can to map the world's coral reefs in Google Streetview. But the project's founder fears he may be too late.

How do you deliver a new mobile operating system version without actually making it available for download? Give developers the tools to add new features through APIs and services: No muss, no fuss, and no additional device fragmentation.

My post about the Google+ redesign and the shift in direction from Facebook design has met with some well reasoned argument. Here I present my own arguments, and reason why I think the two design philosophies are moving in different direction.

Jelly has raised a Series A round to continue hiring and prototyping the mysterious mobile product from ex-Twitter executives. Still no word on what the company's working on.

The first fully integrated nanosystem for artificial photosynthesis is developed for producing hydrogen with cheap components and biomimicry.

Google Glass is still leagues short having the thriving developer community of Android, but at I/O Google began seeding that app ecosystems with the help of six big-name web and media brands.

Startup Raise Labs wants to rethink college financial aid with a model that enables students to earn micro scholarships over the course of their high-school careers.

As a boom of solar panels continues to be installed on buildings throughout the U.S., companies, groups and even every day people can make money off of funding this clean energy transition.

Google launched its own music subscription service Wednesday. Currently, it's not very different from all the other services out there. So how does it want to compete?

Verizon's prepaid plans are still more expensive than other no-contract operators, but you can now get 2 GB of 3G data on the $60 plan and 4 GB on the $70 plan.

It may not be pleasant for the competitors, but cloud competition is nothing but good for cloud consumers -- whether they're startups or Fortune 100 companies.

Blind trust in black box, or click-and-run, software is a growing problem in science, and the concern extends to big data and high performance computing.

Journalists and organizations now have the ability to use sensors to collect their own real-time data and report on it. The practice raises both practical and ethical questions, Columbia's Emily Bell said Thursday.

Google CEO Larry Page, who has been suffering from vocal cord issues showed up at the end of Google I/O keynote and spent talking about his vision of technology and took questions from the audience. And that's one the fun started.

The new Google Hangouts brings together all of Google's messaging services and will soon see SMS integration. So where does this leave Google Voice in the big picture?

Google said Thursday it is establishing a Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab to trigger the next phase of machine learning with the power of quantum computers. The efforts could trickle down to ordinary people.

The titans of the web are rebels, playing by their own rules. That is to be applauded at times, but we should also be thinking about the wider, long-term implications for society and fair competition.